Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Looking to discover more about your favourite audio company or for translations of technical, headphone related jargon?

Find out in our helpful FAQs, collected from years of interaction with our customers and answered by our audio experts. Use our helpful jump to section above to quickly find the relevant topic for your query. If your question isn't answered below, please contact our customer care team for a direct response.

RHA

We are an independent British audio company. Engineering products that transform the way people interact with sound, technology and each other. We believe in providing value and quality without compromise, which is why we offer an industry-leading 3 year warranty with all of our headphones.

To take advantage of free delivery you can purchase directly from the RHA website in many countries, check out our latest headphones. You can also see our complete list of authorised retailers for stores near you.

Since our founding we have become in-ear headphone specialists; focusing on ensuring our products are both innovative and of the highest possible quality. As we grow we hope to carry those values into other product ranges.

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Our newsletter notifies you of everything new at RHA including upcoming new product releases, as well as weekly original content such as Spotify playlists and interviews. For a taste of the exciting content contained in our newsletter please see our blog and the RHA Spotify.

If you wish to leave feedback on your experience with RHA then please see our TrustPilot page, for UK and US customers. Alternatively tag us in your feedback on social media. See our social media links at the bottom of the page.

If you are a UK or US customer and purchased directly from our website we will send you an email inviting you to leave a product review on Trustpilot. If you purchased via Amazon then please feel free to leave a review there. Alternatively you can review your product on our Facebook page.

If your question isn’t answered by our FAQs then please use our live chat for quick advice or help choosing a suitable RHA product. If our live chat is unavailable or you have a warranty issue then please use our customer support contact form.

Products

The correct ear tip fit should be both comfortable and noise isolating. A good noise isolating fit should reduce the sound of background, ambient noise, for example traffic, by a significant amount. Noise isolation is achieved by sealing your ear canal with the ear tip. Some ear tips cover the outside of the ear canal such as our dual density ear tips, whilst others fit into the ear canal like our double flange ear tips.

To read more about the importance of a good noise isolating fit and the differences between noise isolation and active noise cancelling (ANC) please read the ‘Audio & Technology’ section of this FAQ page.

Our ear tips are designed to fit securely on the headphones to avoid them falling off and will naturally loosen over time. The simplest way to fit the earbuds is to roll them in your hands for a few seconds to heat them up and allow the silicone to expand slightly. Hold the ear tip between your thumb and index finger, pinching the ear tip slightly and then apply the sound pipe of the earphone at a slight angle. Then apply gentle pressure to the ear tip, towards the sound pipe, as you straighten up the earphone.

All of our headphones are playback compatible with devices utilising a 3.5mm socket. In most cases the microphone will remain compatible with all devices utilising TRRS & CTIA jack configurations. However as the internal chip used to communicate with your device is supplied by Apple, we are unable to guarantee compatibility with other manufacturers’ devices.

These universal functions are possible with any mobile device using a standard CTIA, TRRS jack configuration. Nearly all modern mobile devices, with jack plugs, use these configurations such as the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Google Pixel.

DualCoil drivers are RHA’s trademarked driver technology which features two independent voice coils, each responsible for producing part of the frequency range. With a lower workload on each coil than a standard single coil driver there is greater room for detailed audio reproduction.

The crossover occurs at 2.2kHz which means one voice coil is responsible for bass and lower-mid frequencies whilst the other is responsible for upper-mids and treble frequencies. To read more in depth information about our DualCoil drivers please see our blog post.

Tuning filters allow you to adjust the sound signature of our T Series products to suit your taste by changing the filter covering the sound pipe. Each filter has a different effect on the sound produced and also protects the housing from debris and dirt.

Aerophonic is a trademarked RHA term that describes our signature housing design used in MA Series products. The design reflects that of an inverted trumpet and achieves unrivalled clarity by avoiding any obstructions between the drivers and the listeners ear.

Yes, all devices using Bluetooth technology communicate with our wireless headphones in the same "language" and therefore are universally compatible, including volume control and microphone functionality.

Audio Technology

An in-ear headphone is similar in size and portability to an earphone however they utilise ear tips which fit within your ear canal. This provides superior noise isolation and sound quality to a standard earphone design.

The headphone frequency range is the minimum and maximum frequencies produced by the speaker within that particular headphone. The human hearing range varies greatly, but falls within 20 Hz to 20,000Hz. Hi-res audio rises beyond 40,000+ Hz.

Headphone sensitivity is the relationship between power supplied to the driver and the output volume. A headphone with 90dB sensitivity will play music at a louder volume at 50% output from your playback device than headphones with a 70dB sensitivity at the same output percentage.

If your headphones have a suitable impedance for the device they are used with then the volume control on your device should be able to adequately provide desired volume levels regardless of headphone sensitivity.

Impedance relates to the resistance of the headphone driver to the power supplied by the playback device. The higher the impedance, the more power is required to power the headphone.

Headphones with impedance of below 50 ohms can easily be played by all mobiles, PCs etc. Headphones between 50 ohms and 200 ohms will still be playable by most modern mobiles and PCs but may not reach their full potential. Headphones above 200 ohms require more powerful input devices to power them, such as headphone amps and certain high powered mobile phones.

Noise isolation is the passive reduction of ambient noise achieved by physically blocking out background noise. For in-ear headphones the fit of the ear tip is crucial to the amount of noise isolation achieved.

The reduction of ambient or background noise is incredibly important to sound quality due to auditory masking. Auditory masking occurs when our ears hear two sounds at similar frequencies, and - particularly with bass frequencies - the louder sound will mask the quieter one. This is why we struggle to hear conversation over loud music or industrial equipment.

Reducing the volume of this background noise reduces the masking of your music and the need to increase your music’s volume.

Noise isolation passively reduces ambient noise by creating a clear path between the headphone and the ear canal whilst physically blocking all external noise. The quality of the isolation relies upon the fit of the ear tips.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) uses microphones to capture ambient noise and then adds the opposite noise to the audio played by the headphones. This has the perceived effect of ‘cancelling out’ the background noise, similar to math: -1 + 1 = 0

HiFi or high-fidelity audio is a term used to describe high-quality sound reproduction, it has no measurable criteria however usually HiFi audio is balanced, flat sound with little or no distortion. The term is used most frequently by audiophiles and experts to distinguish high-quality audio from low-quality.

Although there is no universal standard criteria for high resolution audio, the common definition refers to audio with a greater or equal frequency range than CD quality. Hi-Res music features less file compression meaning less loss of sound. Many of our earphones are Hi-Res certified by the Japan Audio Society.

Reference audio or sound is a term used to describe audio which replicates the original recording as closely as possible. A flat or balanced frequency response is key to producing this sound in order to reproduce the sound as the music artist intended with minimal tuning.

Audiophiles are individuals who are enthusiastic about high fidelity audio. Audiophiles pride themselves on technical knowledge of audio reproduction and the products within the market. Audiophiles may or may not also be musicphiles but their passion for audio is undoubtable.

A DAC or Digital to Analogue Converter’s function is to convert digital information into analogue audio signals for speakers and amplifiers. The more efficient and diligent the conversion process, the greater the sound quality provided to your amp or speakers.

Many playback devices such as laptops and mobile phones still contain relatively poor quality DACs and amplifiers due to cost or space constraints. Therefore they may not be able to play your music to a satisfactory quality or volume level and you require an external amplifier.

When paired with a DAC, a headphone amplifier provides far superior audio output than the default components within most standard playback devices.

Balanced cables feature a complex design which eliminates the small amount of distortion present in unbalanced audio cables for absolute sonic precision. The ground wires within unbalanced cables have a slight antenna effect which produces small amounts of distortion.

To negate this balanced cables send the original audio signal to one wire and an exact inverted copy of that signal to the other (positive and negative signals). Both of these signals travel independently to their destination and experience the same distortion effects. The inverted signal is then reversed back to its original state. As the distortion from one of the cables is now reversed, each cables distortion effect will be equally opposite from the other. Thus, once the two signals from each wire are combined again, the distortion will cancel itself out and only the original sound signal will remain.

Purchases

To check which countries we ship to, select the country tab located at the bottom right of your page. This will display all of our regional websites; those with a shopping bag logo are eligible for online purchase on our site.

Unfortunately we don’t offer a part-exchange or trade-in service for functioning or broken products. However if you purchase is within the 30-day refund period we would be happy to assist you in returning your purchase so that you can buy another model.

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